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This baked ziti recipe is fast to prep, easy to customise, and at all times so cozy and scrumptious.
Cozy, tacky, and assured to make the entire desk pleased. ♡
With our boys beginning college subsequent week (first day of daycare and pre-Okay — my coronary heart!), I’m lining up a number of low-fuss dinners like this baked ziti to assist us all do our greatest to get again into the varsity yr routine. This one’s a perpetually favourite — tender pasta tossed with savory Italian sausage, crispy pancetta, recent spinach, and loads of melty mozzarella and Parmesan, all tossed with a jar of your favourite marinara sauce and baked till bubbly and golden. It’s a type of standby recipes that’s ultra-simple, endlessly customizable, freezer-friendly, and a win with kiddos and adults alike.
We prefer to serve ours up with a aspect salad or some air-fryer broccoli, garlic bread, perhaps a glass of pink wine. And if there are leftovers, they reheat like a dream for a straightforward lunch the following day. It’s the form of cozy consolation we’re able to carry again this time of yr. Let’s make some collectively!
Recipe Ideas
Need to profit from this recipe? Preserve these fast ideas in thoughts:
- Undercook the pasta barely. Pull the pasta from the boiling water about 1 minute earlier than it reaches al dente so it doesn’t overcook and get soggy whereas baking within the sauce.
- Drain pancetta on paper towels. This retains the ultimate dish from getting greasy whereas nonetheless letting you utilize the flavorful drippings to prepare dinner the sausage and onion.
- Use a good-quality marinara. For the reason that sauce is a serious part right here, select a good-quality jarred sauce (we at all times maintain Rao’s readily available!) or your favourite selfmade marinara.
- Bake uncovered. This enables the cheese to brown and the perimeters to crisp barely — no must cowl with foil!
Recipe Variations
Need to change issues up? Listed here are a number of simple twists to attempt with this baked ziti recipe:
- Add veggies: Stir in sautéed mushrooms, zucchini, bell peppers, or roasted eggplant.
- Use a unique protein: Swap the Italian sausage for floor beef, turkey, hen, or a plant-based different.
- Go vegetarian: Skip the meat fully and bulk up the sauce with additional greens, lentils, or white beans.
- Swap the cheese: Attempt provolone, fontina, ricotta, or goat cheese instead of (or along with) the mozzarella and Parmesan.
- Change up the sauce: Use spicy arrabbiata or creamy Alfredo as a substitute of conventional marinara.
- Add recent herbs: Stir chopped basil, parsley, or oregano into the sauce simply earlier than layering for a burst of freshness.
- Make it spicy: Double the crushed pink pepper flakes or add diced Calabrian chiles for some additional warmth.
Extra Baked Pasta Recipes To Attempt!
Love a great pasta bake? Listed here are a number of extra recipes you may take pleasure in:
Description
This baked ziti recipe is fast to prep, easy to customise, and bakes up into the coziest, cheesiest weeknight dinner.
- 1 pound raw ziti
- 1 (4 ounce) package deal pancetta (or diced bacon)
- 1 pound floor Italian sausage
- 1 small white onion, diced
- 5 giant cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon every: crushed pink pepper flakes, dried oregano, effective sea salt
- 2 (28-ounce) jars marinara sauce
- 2 handfuls (3 ounces) recent child spinach
- 16 ounces shredded complete milk mozzarella, divided
- 2/3 cup freshly-grated Parmesan, divided
- chopped recent basil and/or parsley, for topping
- Prep the pasta water, oven and baking dish. Convey a big pot of generously-salted water to a boil. Warmth the oven to 400°F. Mist a 9×13-inch baking dish with oil.
- Cook dinner the meat and veggies. Cook dinner the pancetta in a big sauté pan or stockpot till browned, stirring often. Use a slotted spoon to switch the pancetta to a clear bowl and put aside. Add the Italian sausage and onion and prepare dinner till browned, breaking the sausage up with a picket spoon because it cooks. Add the garlic, crushed pink pepper flakes and oregano and sauté for two extra minutes, stirring incessantly.
- Cook dinner the pasta. Add the pasta to the boiling water and prepare dinner till it’s about 1 minute shy of al dente. (The pasta will proceed to prepare dinner within the oven.) Drain the pasta and return it to the stockpot.
- End the sauce. Whereas the pasta is cooking, rigorously add within the marinara sauce, spinach and cooked pancetta to the meat combination and stir to mix till the spinach has wilted. One the pasta has been drained, pour the sauce into the stockpot with the pasta and gently toss to mix.
- Layer in a pan. Add about half of the pasta combination to the pan in an excellent layer. Sprinkle evenly with half of the mozzarella and half of the Parmesan. Add the remaining pasta and sprinkle evenly with the remaining mozzarella.
- Bake. Bake for 20 minutes or till the sauce is bubbly and the cheese begins to brown. (If you happen to’d just like the cheese much more golden, you possibly can activate the broiler for a minute or two till it begins to brown, conserving a really shut eye in order that it doesn’t burn.)
- Serve. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and basil or parsley, serve up good and scorching, and luxuriate in!
